Friday, June 20, 2014

Painted Lady

A few weeks ago a box arrived in the mail containing five little squirmy caterpillars. A few weeks later, they were ready to released as delicate butterflies. Lyddie was disappointed that we finally had to let them go until I told her that maybe they would land on her if she put her hand in the tent.

The first four fluttered out and away rapidly but the fifth was sitting quietly on the floor of the tent. It clambered up onto Lyddie's fingers and allowed her to lift it out. It stayed on her hand for at least five minutes with its tongue unrolled searching for food. It was magical to see this graceful, beautiful creature cradled trustingly in my girl's hands. Once it flew away, it landed nearby in the grass and allowed us to continue watching it a little longer before it fluttered toward the orchard and disappeared.

2 comments:

life IS beautiful! We raised butterflies once when the kids were small, and one butterfly did not pump his wings enough so he was disabled. We took care of him until his natural death. He even went to the beach with us during vacation!